President Buhari fulfills promise to Eaglets, 30 years after.

President Muhammadu Buhari has fulfilled his promise of rewarding members of the Golden Eaglets, who won the inaugural FIFA U-16 World Cup in China in 1985, when he was military head of state.

At a reception held in honour of the players at the old Banquet Hall in the state house, the President said compensating them was not for the laurels they won for the country but a token of appreciation for their patriotic efforts.

He further announced that each of the 1985 players would get N2 million, while their coaches would be rewarded with N1.5 million.

Buhari also appreciated the current Golden Eaglets team that won the 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Chile.

He said each of the players would receive N1.2 million, while their coaches would get N900,000, and N600,000 would go to the assistant coaches.

The president rewarded athletes and officials who did Nigeria proud in recent sports competitions.

Each member of the Dream Team that won the U-23 African Nations Cup in Senegal last year got N600,000, while their coaches went home with N500,000 each.

Members of the 2015 FIBA African Women Championship, where Nigeria won silver medal, got N400,000 each, coaches went home with N400,000 and while team officials got N150,000 each.

The gold medalists in the 2015 IPC Asian Open International Powerlifting Championship in Almaty-Kazakhstan, were promised N600,000 each; silver medalists and coaches, N450,000 each, while team officials will get N250,000 each, according to the president.

Wellington Jighere who won gold medal in the 2015 World English Language Scrabble Championship in Peth-Australia got N1.5m; his coach, Anthony Ikolo got N1.2m while the team secretary, Makano Adamu got N450,000.

Valentine Chinyem is a writer, editor, educationist and a human developer. He is passionate about Nigeria, her culture and people; and believes the media in Nigeria, should do more to sell the country positively to the rest of the world